Musical instrument



May 23, 1939. A. ROSE MUSICAL INSTRUIENT Filed March 8, 1938 2Sheets-Sheet l 2 INVENTOR. le 1an der Pose ATTORNEYS BHIIIIH HHHHHHUlhv.

QJ? OKQMLK May 23, 1939. A, ROSE 2,159,491

I MUSICAL INSTRUIENT Filed March 8, 1938 2 sheets-sheet 2 INVENTOR./exander Pos e ATTORNEY 5 f tune or melody, thereby audibly reproducingit.'

Patented May 23, 1939 UNITED STATES MUSICAL INSTRUMENT Alexander Rose,New York, N. Y.

Application March 8,

2 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in musical instruments of a typeadapted to be both entertaining and instructive.

' The general combination of the invention consists of a series of tunedelements; preferably tuned in accordance with the chromatic scale, and aplurality of key actuated striking members having the keys marked in.accordance with a portion of a standard keyboard of a typewriter.

Other objects of this invention will be apparent from the followingdescription when taken in connection with the attached drawings.

This invention resides substantially in the combination, construction,arrangement and relative location of parts, all as will be explained indetail below. i

In the accompanying drawings,

Figure 1 is a top plan view of an instrument in accordance with thisinvention;

Figure 2 is a cross sectional view taken on the line 2 2 of Figure l;

Figure 3 is a plan view of a portion of the mechanism, the remainderbeing ybroken away.

A general object of this invention is to provide a musical instrumenthaving key operating members arranged and marked in accordance with aportion of a standard keyboard of a typewriter, so that those skilled inthe operation of a. typewriter, and those learning to operate one, mayincrease their proficiency while at the same time amuse themselves.

As will appear later, the notes of musical compositions may berepresented by letters of the alphabet so that they may be reduced, inmitten form, to aseries of letters arranged in lines which have noparticular sequence. In other words, a particular melody whenrepresented in this manner, will appear as a series of arbitrarilyarranged letters. A person operating the instrument of this invention,following the touch system of typing, will strike, in sequence, thenotes representing the While doing this their skill in the operation ofthe typewriter by the touch system will be perfected. It is believedthat this characteristic of the device is enhanced by reason of the factthat the letters representing the notes of the music have an absolutelyarbitrary sequence, thereby developing the users typing ability. ,K

Referring to the drawings, the device is shown comprising a base I ofany suitable form, supported as for example by means of short legs orstandards 2. At l is indicated a suitably shaped housing or cover inwhich the parts are enclosed. As will appear from the drawings, thehousing 1938, Serial No. 194,532

thus formed provides a space not unlike that at the front of atypewriter on which the various keys, as will be described later, aredisposed.

Mounted within the housing thus formed are the standards 4 between whichextend a shaft 5 5 upon which are pivotally mounted, intermediate theends thereof, a plurality of levers 6. These levers, as is clear fromFig. 3, are of different lengths `so that the key members 1 mounted onthe ends thereof may be disposed in a bank, as is l0 clear from Fig. l,so as to be a substantial duplication of a standard typewriter key bank.These keys are marked, as is shown in Fig. 1, with the alphabet lettersand the various numerals, symbols and punctuation marks, all of whichtogether 15 preferably comprise the letter rows of a standard typewriterkeyboard. These characters are arranged in the same sequence andrelationship as in the standard typewriter key bank, the numeral rowbeing omitted. 20

Extending transversely of the levers 6, below them; and mounted on thesupport I, is a bar 8 in which are mounted a plurality of verticallyextending pins 9 disposed between the levers to form guide memberstherefor and to prevent transverse misaligmnent of the levers. Mountedon the support I, near the ends of the levers 6,` are a pair ofstandards I0 which support a transversely extending bar II which isdisposedabove the levers. Secured to this bar II, by means oi' 30flexible arms I3, arethe hammers I2. The exible arms may be made of anysuitable material which either is, or is not, inherently resilient, initself. For example these arms may be made -of leather fabric and otherfiexible materials, or may be 35 made of thin spring metal such as brassand the like. Secured to the top surface of each lever 6, near the enddisposed under the arms I3, are strips 6a of a suitable soft resilientmaterial such as felt, leather or the like. These surfaces of the 40levers represent the surfaceswhich engage the arms I3 when the keys aredepressed, to kick the hammers upward. The felt strips 6a mainly servethe purpose of preventing 'generation of undesired sounds when the leverends strike the 45 arms. For a similar reason there is arrangedtransversely of the lever lengths, and mounted on the support I, a stripI4 of any suitable soft material such as felt, arranged so that thehammers on their return strokes strike it. Likewise 50 at I5 atransversely extending bar I5 is mounted on the support I below the endsof the lever 6 and provided wth a soft surface I6 made, for example, offelt on which the ends of the levers rest.

ifi

note which each generates when set in vibration in sequence forms thechromatic scale. As is clear from the drawings, one of these elements isassociated -with each of the lever actuated hammers i2 so that theactuation of any par= ticular lever always causes the striking oi anassociated element i8. rIhus, or each key and the character markedthereon, there is' a charactor-istie note.

is is clear from the above description and the attached drawings, thetuned elements i8 are associated with the keys of a portion of astandard typewriter keyboard so that in striking the keys irom one sidetowards the other, as for ei:- ainple from the left to the right in Fig.l, in the order of their displacement towards the right, the elements i8are set in vibration in succession either up or down the scale, as forexample up the scale in accordance with the arrangement illustrated inFigure l. The result of such a combination is the fact that the elementsset in vibration by any two adjacent keys in any row are separated bythirds. In addition, the elements set in vibration by any two adjacentkeys in adjacent rows, as Q-A, A-Z, W-S, or S-X, etc., are separated byhalf-notes. By reason of this arrangement the device is exceedinglysimple to play or operate and it is a very simple matter to set upvarious standard chords, which is in part due to the fact that everyfifth key in a row with respect to another is separated by one octave,as for example the keys W and Y, or R and I.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that with such anarrangement any melody may be translated, so to speak, into a chartconsisting entirely of letters of the alphabet, numerals, characters orpunctuation marks, so that the melody may be reproduced on theinstrument herein disclosed by simply striking, in the indicatedsequence, the keys upon which the respective characters occur. Thus theoperator using the touch system may operate the device from such achart. The indiscriminate association of the letters, numbers,characters and punctuation marks, as required by a particular melody,naturally develops the touch system typewriter operators ability tosubconsciously strike the correct keys. All of this is accomplished atthe same time as the operator is, so to speak, being entertained by thereproduction of a piece of music.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the many details ofstructure involved can be varied without departure from the scope ofthis invention. For example, in place of the tuned rod elements, tunedwires may be employed or indeed any series of tuned elements capable ofgenerating sound when set in vibration.

I do not, therefore, desire to be strictly limited to the disclosure asgiven for purposes of illustration, but rather to the scope of theclaims granted me.

What I seek to secure by United States Letters Patent is:

1. In a device of the type described, the combination including aplurality of tuned sound generating elements arranged in chromatic scalesequence, and a plurality of key lever actuated devices respectivelyassociated with said elements to set them in vibration, said key leversbeing arranged and marked to form at least a portion of a standardtypewriter keyboard and associated with said tuned elements in thesequence of their arrangement.

2. In a device of the type described, the cmbination including asupport, a'plurality of tuned elements mounted on said support andadapted to respectively generate sound when set in vibration, saidelements being tuned to form a chromatic scale, a plurality of hammermeans, one

for each element, a plurality of levers arranged to actuate said hammersindividually, and a plurality of keys respectively connected to saidlevers and arranged and marked to form at least a portion of atypewriter key-bank.

ALEXANDER ROSE.

